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'SAMENA Daily' News

Guyana seeking funding for broadband project

Category: Policy and Regulation

Publishing Date: August 13, 2017

Guyana’s Ministry of Public Telecommunications (MoPT) has requested a USD17 million grant from the Guyana REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) Investment Fund (GRIF) to bankroll its ICTAccess and eServices for Hinterland, Poor and Remote Communities project, which aims to provide connectivity to the nation’s remote inland communities.

The GRIF is a USD250 million fund provided by Norway to assist Guyana in transitioning towards a more green economy, with the aim of combating climate change by encouraging low-carbon economic growth and development.

Details of the MoPT project have not been made public, except that the programme is expected to last five years and will feature an education/training aspect as well as the deployment of necessary infrastructure. In an interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI) Minister of Public Telecommunications Catherine Hughes was quoted as saying that ‘special approaches’ would be needed to provide services in many ‘far flung parts of the hinterland, like Rupununi’. On the need to provide educational support in the more remote areas of the country, the official added: ‘We will need to go into these communities and provide training, so that they can [learn] how to use this internet they are getting to better themselves’.